Starters for Ten

[RogerLaura]

Hello everyone
My partner & I (no kids or animals) have just started the process in which you guys seem to be fully fledged, we submitted our EOI which was selected on 7th May and are still waiting for confirmation. We're obviously new to this so have a few questions:

What's the ballpark figure for the move i.e. flights, shipping goods etc?

How long does it take to ship your goods?

We haven't much equity in our UK home so want to know if it's better to sell your house in the UK or whether it'd be a good idea to hold onto it - do you get heavily taxed if you keep it?

If you have a job offer how quickly can this speed things up, if you don't, what's the typical length of time from EOI confirmation to obtaining your Visas?

Well i'll leave it there for now as I don't want to overwhelme you all on my 1st post.

hope to hear from you soon

Laura

[kokopeli]

Hi Laura,

Shop around for flights. Some airlines have better deals than others. If you get Permanent Residency, you can enter with one-way tickets, which usually cost about 2/3 the price of return flights. You may need a return ticket if you enter without your long term residence status sorted. I think current prices are around GB£1,000 per person for a return ticket from Heathrow to Auckland.

Most people who ship their belongings manage with a 20' shipping container. Again, it's best to shop around as prices can vary quite a bit. A lot will depend on how far you live from the port of departure in the UK and the port of arrival in NZ. Expect to pay between GB£3,000 and GB£5,000 if you want a full packing and unpacking service.

Shipping transit times also vary considerably, depending on when your container arrives at the port, when your ship leaves and how many stops it makes before it reaches New Zealand. Our campervan made it in 31 days. Our furniture took eight weeks.

The decision to sell your house in the UK is always a tough one. If you it, you can claim an exemption from NZ tax on overseas income for the first four years after you become a tax resident in NZ. It might be worth doing that, but you won't be able to claim any family assistance or family tax credits in NZ if you do. You won't be able to claim any in the first year anyway, so it's worth it in year 1 at least. You can always surrender the entitlement if you sell the house.

We thought about keeping our house in the UK, but decided that we wanted to move anyway. We also decided that we didn't want the hassle of having to sort out problems with the house or tenants when we were half-way round the world.

Job offers usually speed up the application process, but not always..... You'll get more points, so your chances of a successful application will increase. I haven't dealt with NZIS for about two years now, so someone else might be able to answer that part of your post. We've had a few stories (good and bad) about NZIS lately so it will be interesting to hear what people have to say about their current performance.

[nickydwuk]

Hi Laura, I can only go from my limited experience. We have just been granted PR. We applied as skilled migrants with a job offer. We received our ITA 2 weeks after our EOI was selected - others took longer. A one way flight from London to Christchurch with SA is about £580 (but these do change). As for shipping goods - as Koko says it can vary - we are just getting quotes in now so watch this space We have been told it can take anything from 6 - 12 weeks to get your goods if it is a sole use container. If you share it could take a lot longer. As for speeding the process with a job offer - with a job offer the application is given priority so it does help.

Hope this helps.

[ebianca]

Hi

Costs for us are as follows- return tickets (no visas hence this) for 2 adults and 2 kids from London- welli- £2600. We did get a good deal with Air NZ.

Shipping- we are having a shared load- cost us about £2500 including 4 month storage and all the insurance etc. We have been told it will take 8-12 weeks from UK to Welli. Still in storage at mo so yet to know if this is accurate.

If you havea job offer your application will put at the top of the pile for processing so yes a job offer usually speeds things up.

Beth

[Bunstar]

Hi Laura,
We moved over in November last year. There's only me and my boyfriend (no kids or animals). I'd say in total we have spent about £12,000-£15,000 on the move. Can't be specfic I'm afraid as I don't want to calculate the exact amount...it'll scare me!!! This includes fees of getting visas, flights, shipping, campervan hire when we arrived and costs of touring for a month, and setting up new (rental) house and buying car. We didn't bring much furniture with us as a lot of what we had in the UK was due for replacement any way but we did bring alot of "stuff" as I'm a hoarder!! We've had to buy sofa, white goods and bed since we got here, plus replace alot of little things like kitchen equipment...it all adds up!!
Think we got good prices on household goods as we shopped around alot but spent more than we should have touring round. Could probably of saved money on the whole touring round thing but that was our holiday for a while so decided to enjoy it as we are now saving for a holiday back to the UK next year.
As for shipping it took approx 12 weeks from house to house, but took a while to get delivered this end as we had to get it linehauled between 2 cities and it was over the Christmas period.
Can't help with the house selling side I'm afraid.
As for time frame. We had no job offer. EOI was selected Sept, ITA received Nov, submitted March, interview May, Decision successful June, renewed pasports then visas in passport 1 August.
Hope that helps,